MUTARE- Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC) has adopted a social responsibility thrust which places priorities of the local community at the heart of corporate social interventions, its officials have said.
By Donald Nyarota
ZCDC Acting Chief Executive Officer Roberto De Pretto made these remarks on the sidelines of a handover ceremony of a newly constructed court for Chief Zimunya, where he said such project emanate from consultations.
He said ZCDC was a responsible company which does not impose projects but takes a thrust informed by the social license to operate granted to the company by host communities.
ZCDC constructed two state of the art traditional courts for Chief Marange and Chief Zimunya under the tier one corporate social responsibility which focuses on host communities.
“We will attend to all the community needs in due process because the community are so important for us they give us the license to operate, we are in partnership and together we will walk the path.
“ZCDC is a responsible mining company, we listen to the communities and we prioritize the projects we don’t decide which projects they should, we discus with them and this is part of our community strategy.
“They identified the courts as one of their priority needs, they felt it was important for them to have the courts completed that why we chipped in to assist,” said De Pretto.
ZCDC board chair Engineer Killian Ukama, in a speech read on his behalf by Colonel Esau Chiadzwa, said culture and tradition give a moral compass to business activities.
Eng Ukama said the identification of Chiefs’ courts as priority needs for communities was informed by a community needs assessment carried out by the company.
“Culture, tradition and customs play an integral role in the civilization and shaping the character of citizens and society. It helps in striking a balance with nature, conservation of natural resources such as diamonds we mine and respect for each other.
“During our community needs assessment exercise the need for decent courts for the Chiefs was identified, this was a strategic and comprehensive approach that we have taken to inform our interventions for the community,” said Eng Ukama.
In his acceptance speech Chief Zimunya applauded the mining company for ploughing back to the community and advancing respect for traditional leadership.
He said the court would be an indelible mark for the community mining companies and the political leadership have placed respect for communities at the heart of the corporate social responsibility.
“We want to applaud the mining company and the leadership of government that are operating in our community for placing respect on the traditional leaders.
“This court not only ensure that the community morals and traditions are kept intact but act as a symbol of the progress we have made in working together with mining companies,” he said.
